Monday, December 29

All of the traditional miller christmas things were done this year again! It isn't christmas without lots of food, baking, christmas nativity, bells, christmas crackers, and christmas Jammie's. It was so fun to have john and sandy here to celebrate with us. The kids did wonderful at the nativity and it was one of my favorites!

On christmas morning we told the kids they couldn't go out to see santas goodies until 8am, so they really did stay in their room together and didn't come out till we went in at 8. At that point Natalie, who is completely addicted to TV and shows, she said she wanted to finish her show before she went out to see the goods haha. The kids were so excited for their Santa gifts and their stockings. Courtney loved checking out the eaten cookies and carrots and couldn't believe the milk was all gone! I love the christmas spirit in children. They are so sweet and full of belief.

Christmas morning we ate crepes and scotch stew and it was delishiouc as always! Opening gifts and just hanging out quietly. We always know we gave good gifts when kids disappear for hours!

Thursday, December 25

Merry christmas from the great white north! We have been here not even a week and we are having so much fun!! My aunt sandy and uncle john are here as well with their oldest jake, who I still remember as a wee lad! Boots is harassing him daily and hourly but we are having a lot of fun. Christmas Sunday was beautiful and the kids all looked great!

We have a tradition here that we have done for years and years, since I was a little girl. The city nativity Pagent. It was beautiful and wonderful as always. They did a great job, and the spirit was felt. What an amazing scene it must have been to be there the night of the savior a birth.

The next night was the Nutcracker ballet. We took all 3 kids and they did really well! It was fun and a great show. Those ballerinas wear some tight tights!! They are so talented though, I wish I could do that!

The kids have gone out every day to play. It hasn't snowed until tonight (yeah!!). But they have pretented and gone ice sledding and shoveled ice and had snow ball fights with old icy snow! I love their little rosy cheeks!

Monday, December 15

Obviously is singing loud for all to hear. On Friday Courtney had her Christmas program at school. She goes to a Catholic school and the program was very cute and very religious. The song they sang was about Jesus's birthday and their gift to him is them. It was very cute and Courtney did a fabulous job. I couldn't believe how many parents and grandparents were there to watch these little preschoolers thing though it was worse than kindergarten at the elementary school.

Friday night we went to a German Christmas market down in Arlington. It was very festive and fun. The kids got some very unique German Christmas tree ornaments that are handcrafted, and I got a crêpe of course! I love to experience different cultures especially how they do Christmas. They had some beautiful handcrafted nativity sets and traditional German things that I thought were really neat. Too bad they were so overly priced!!

then something I actually have a love hate relationship with... on Sunday, we made gingerbread houses. We got a whole bunch of candy out and I made a whole big batch of icing to use on their houses. It was a sticky hot mess but the kids had a lot of fun making them! They are so creative. I like to watch them look at each other's and copy what another person did because they like their idea! My OCD came in a couple of times and I wanted to take her but I didn't, I let them in with a wanted with their houses.

Saturday, December 13

Poppy turned a month old today! I can't believe how time has flown by so fast already.

She is slowly gaining weight after I have decided to pump every feeding and bottlefeed her. She was just taking so long to nurse I have to do something about it. So I feel happy with her progress and I know she is getting longer because her sleepers are starting to come off of her shoulders.

Natalie got to go dumpster diving with me this week. I was doing a baby shower for my friend Heather and we needed some fresh Christmas tree branches and cuts of Christmas tree stumps. We went to three different locations and dug through the trash. At Lowe's I literally put Natalie in the trashcan to help me get the stuff at the bottom. We walked away with some pretty good branches.

The baby shower that I did turned out really cute. It is so exciting to celebrate a little baby that is so wanted from a sweet couple like Heather and Tyson. The theme was baby it's cold outside and we did a hot chocolate bar. There were lots of different toppings and it was delicious.

I love Heather and I am so excited for her to get this sweet baby into this world in the next month.